跟读练习: Why Are Things Cute? - 通过视频学习英语口语
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Hey, Vsauce. Michael here. And The Pet Collective offers 24-hour coverage of puppies and kittens. It's really cute.
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But what is cute, scientifically? I mean, why do we like soft, cuddly things and why do cute things have a unique effect on us?
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Well, the word cute is a shortening of acute, which originally meant "keen," "shrewd," "perceptive." About 180 years ago, the word cute began to be used as slang for a girl, who was pretty.
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And after that, it accrued a new meaning and was used to describe cuddly, delicate, quaint, precious, youthful traits. Konrad Lorenz studies cuteness in living things and put together a great specific list of what we consider cute.
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Small body size with a disproportionately large head, large eyes and round and soft body features. But why exactly did these characteristics elicit an "ooooohhh" response from us humans? Well, Lorenz pointed that you could find all of those characteristics in the human baby, which makes sense.
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If merely looking at our offspring makes us instinctively feel protective and nurturing, well, that's great for all of us. A fun consequence of this is that our experience of cuteness can be triggered by things that aren't human babies.
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For instance, shells, bunnies, owls and even a hammer.
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A hammer, how can that be? Take a look at this interactive tool from the Exploratorium. A hammer is boring.
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But if we apply Lorenz's traits and make it really round and really squat, it goes from a utilitarian tool to a cute little tiny hammer. Oh, he's just a little hammer, don't hurt him.
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It is a hammer that has become cute, because we gave it qualities that we see in our own offspring.
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As Daniel Dennett puts it, "if human babies looked like this, instead of that, we would find this cute." And whenever we saw something that looked like it, we would wanna cuddle and snuggle with it.
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Alright, so we have a pretty good idea about the how and what of cute.
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But where is cute? Well, researchers have shown cute baby pictures to subjects while using functional MRI to track activity in the brain.
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And sure enough, the cuter the baby in the picture, the more activation found right here - the nucleus accumbens. A pleasure centre.
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When activated, the nucleus accumbens releases dopamine.
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It's all part of our internal reward system. It's the same part of the brain targeted by cocaine and meth. Cuteness is such a powerful force on the brain in fact that it can affect our behaviours - what we like, what we buy.
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And so it's no coincidence that the creators of cartoon characters, like Mickey Mouse or Pikachu, have drawn them more and more cute over time.
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The Japanese concept of Kawaii is a great example of this and it's one that's fun to quantify.
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If you're an adult, how many of your own heads, stacked on top of each other, do you think it would take to equal your height?
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The answer for most of us is around 7.5. But illustrations of people that are meant to make them look heroic or noble tend to make the person around 8 to 8.5 heads high.
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Cute goes the other way. Manga characters tend to only be about 5.5 to 6.5 heads tall.
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Back to babies.
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There are many other psychological factors at work that cause us to want to instinctively take care of our young. And to be sure, some of them are decidedly not cute. For instance, poopy diapers.
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Researchers have found that mothers, when exposed to soiled diapers, tend to consider the smell coming from their own child's diaper to be the least terrible, despite not knowing which diaper belonged to which kid. When something retains juvenile traits all the way through adulthood, it is called neoteny. And we love it, especially in animals that we keep as pets. Of course, us humans have selectively bred all kinds of animals to make each generation more and more useful to us.
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But the dog may be the animal that've spent the most time designing, making each generation better at hunting or better at staying cuter for longer.
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Dogs like this have been designed by us to look, grow and behave in ways that we want.
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Not that dissimilar from how we would design, say, a DVD player and its features.
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So whether it's staying cute forever or just being a really great hunting companion, the modern dog, more than any other animal, could be considered not so much a consequence of nature as much as it is a piece of human technology. As Science Friday puts it, "the dog is man's best friend because it may be man's best invention." So go pet a cute dog today.
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And as always, thanks for watching.
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为什么要通过这个视频练习口语?
在这个视频中，Vsauce的Michael探讨了“可爱”的科学意义，解释了为何我们对温柔、可爱的事物产生吸引力。通过跟随这样的对话，学习者可以在听力理解和口语表达方面获得极大的提升。使用这种shadowing site，可以帮助你提高对英语的口语能力，尤其是在理解和运用与“可爱”相关的词汇和句子结构时。这种内容丰富且有趣的对话非常适合进行英语口语练习，让你在轻松的氛围中提高表现。
语法与表达在语境中的应用
在视频中，Michael使用了几种有效的语法结构，这些结构非常适合在提高英语发音和口语表达时参考。
- 使用“what is...”结构:例如，“what is cute, scientifically?”这样的句型在提问时提供了清晰的语境，使听众能够深入思考。
- 因果句型:视频中提到“if looking at our offspring makes us feel protective…”使用了因果关系，帮助学习者理解事件之间的联系。
- 比较句:Michael提到“if human babies looked like this, we would find this cute.”这种比较句可以用于强化观点，提升表达的效果。
这些结构在shadow speak时非常有用，能够让学习者更灵活地运用英语进行交流。
常见发音陷阱
在视频中，有一些可能对学习者造成困惑的发音，尤其对于非母语者来说:
- “cute”与“cut”: 这两个词的发音相似，但含义截然不同，易于混淆。
- “cuddle”的发音:这种词的发音需要注意，尤其是尾音部分，常常被忽略。
- 连音现象:如“the more activation found right here,”其中的词与词之间的连读可能让人不易听清楚。
通过精准的提高英语发音练习，可以帮助你在与他人交流中减少误会，让你的表达更加流畅。
什么是跟读法？
跟读法 (Shadowing) 是一种有科学依据的语言学习技巧，最初开发用于专业口译员的培训，并由多语言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。这个方法简单而强大：您在听英语母语原声的同时立即大声重复——就像是一个延迟1-2秒紧跟说话者的影子。与被动听力或语法练习不同，跟读法强迫您的大脑和口腔肌肉同时处理并模仿真实的讲话模式。研究表明它能显着提高发音准确性，语调，节奏，连读，听力理解和口语流利度——使其成为雅思口语备考和真实英语交流最有效的方法之一。